flying buttress

American  

noun

Architecture.

1. a segmental arch transmitting an outward and downward thrust to a solid buttress that through its inertia transforms the thrust into a vertical one.

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flying buttress British  

noun

1. Also called: arc-boutant.  a buttress supporting a wall or other structure by an arch or part of an arch that transmits the thrust outwards and downwards

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flying buttress Cultural  

1. An external, arched support for the wall of a church or other building. Flying buttresses were used in many Gothic cathedrals (see also cathedral); they enabled builders to put up very tall but comparatively thin stone walls, so that much of the wall space could be filled with stained-glass windows. The cathedrals of Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris were built with flying buttresses.

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Etymology

Origin of flying buttress

First recorded in 1660–70

Example Sentences

They are integral parts of a dynamic structural system—their weight of stone pushing the walls outward while the flying buttresses outside push them inward—the two forces exactly matching, like a perfectly balanced seesaw.

From The Wall Street Journal

Four massive concrete slabs jut into the room at second-story level, a move that is meant to celebrate structure—the museum’s director calls them “internal flying buttresses.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Through the centuries, the cathedral’s windows were widened and the flying buttresses reconstructed.

From Washington Post

Its tall branches tower above me like flying buttresses, its wide canopy is a sanctuary.

From New York Times

And then there is the structure itself, with its towering walls of stone, its flying buttresses and its weird populace of gargoyles and grotesques watching the city from on high.

From Washington Post